Prioritizing Sleep and What It’s Costing You When You Don’t with Dr. Angela Holliday-Bell
Are you getting enough of it? Are you prioritizing it? Can you go without it? This week on Lift U Up: Inspiring Health Stories we’re finally diving into a subject everyone can relate to: SLEEP. Joined by sleep expert Dr. Angela Holliday-Bell, we discuss common FAQs about sleep, like how many hours we really need and how to get it. With the holiday stress in the rearview mirror and a flurry of new year’s resolutions now top of mind, listen in for tips on taking back control of your sleep and feeling your best self.
Finding Passion in Sleep
Dr. Angela Holliday-Bell is a board certified physician, sleep coach, corporate wellness consultant, sleep blogger, and all-around sleep ninja. With a long personal sleep journey of her own, Angela found a passion in helping people get their best sleep. Growing up, Angela had a great relationship with sleep. She loved it and never had trouble falling asleep when she needed it. It wasn’t until her medical school residency when two factors came into play and changed her sleep experience. A demanding schedule and increased stress caused Angela to struggle falling asleep (and staying asleep) for the first time. This had a direct impact on every aspect of her life, and caused her to dive into research to understand how to get back on track.
Prioritizing your Best Self
Angela’s experience needing sleep, but not being able to sleep was enough to motivate Angela to do a deep dive on sleep research. One of her first conclusions was that sleep and sleeping trouble is not emphasized enough when we talk about wellness. Sleep keeps our body functioning properly, and without it, it’s impossible to perform at your best. The more Angela learned, the more passionate she became about the subject. In her last year of residency, she started writing about her “road to sleep recovery” along with her findings on her sleep blog. One of her biggest conclusions? We simply aren’t prioritizing sleep enough. Angela got her sleep certification and started a career helping others achieve their optimal sleep.
Bedtime Advice
According to Angela, most Americans are not getting enough sleep. In fact, it has been deemed a public health epidemic. We are 30-40% more productive in our lives with enough sleep, so there is no reason to not prioritize it! The amount of sleep we need is not one size fits all. Angela shares that the first step is to figure out what works best for your body. Angela leaves listeners of this week’s episode with plenty of actionable sleep tips, such as:
- How a “sleep-cation” can help recalibrate your sleep and bedtime routine.
- The connection between sleep and stress, and how the two work against each other.
- How professionals with long hours or busy parents can still prioritize enough sleep, and why that oftentimes starts with setting up a bedtime routine.
- The negative effects of too little sleep.
- Behaviors that perpetuate insomnia and steps to take to reverse it.
- Why quality sleep matters more than quantity.
What else can you expect in this episode?
- How many hours of sleep is right for Angela, and how she determined that.
- Why women often have a harder time sleeping.
- What working with her clients looks like for Angela and her business.
Where to find Dr. Angela Holliday-Bell: